Leaders in bid to save Baltic Sea

Summit in Finland considers ways to clean up the world's most polluted body of water.

10 Feb 2010 17:43 GMT

Political leaders, NGOs and scientists from the nine Baltic countries are meeting in Helsinki, Finland's capital, to take part in a Baltic Sea Action Summit on cleaning up the world's most polluted and poisonous body of water.

The World Water Forum says all the Baltic states "are sinners" for dumping over the years tonnes of sewage and agricultural waste into the sea.

During World War Two hundreds of downed planes ended up on the seabed and the Finnish government say the bodies of dead German soldiers were thrown into the water by Soviet troops.

In recent times, the dumping of hazardous material has been the biggest polluter.

As Stephen Cole reports from Helsinki, large areas of the sea are now suffering from eutrophication or lack of oxygen.